Pace University’s Doctor of Psychology (PsyD) in School-Clinical Child Psychology program, one of only 10 nationwide recognized as a combined professional-scientific psychology doctoral program by the American Psychological Association (APA), has been re-accredited for a seven-year period.

A distinctive doctoral program“Our program is distinctive in that it is one of only two combined professional-scientific psychology PsyD programs in the New York City region (the other is at Yeshiva University) and one of three combined PsyD programs in the U.S. accredited by APA. The APA accredits doctoral psychology programs in three areas: clinical psychology, counseling psychology, and school psychology. Significantly, there are just 10 programs that combine two or three of the professional practice areas in the U.S. There are other PsyD programs in the region, but they are accredited in only one psychology area,” explains Dr. Barbara Mowder, Program Director.

The APA site visitThis March, a site visit was conducted by an APA Site Visit team. Chaired by Dr. Sandra Harris from Rutgers University, the team prepared a site visit report and submitted it to the APA Committee on Accreditation (CoA). Pace University was provided the opportunity to read and respond to the report. After receiving Pace’s response, the CoA reviewed all of the materials related to the program and the site visit. Subsequently, the program was awarded accreditation for a seven-year period of time, which is the maximum number of years permitted by APA. According to Dr. Mowder, “The APA can determine that the Site Visit team needs to re-visit the program at any point. Therefore, a program may receive accreditation for a shorter period of time, perhaps two or three years. For this reason, it is meaningful that our program received the full seven-year accreditation.”

Brief accreditation historyThe PsyD in School-Clinical Child Psychology received initial accreditation in 1988 as a school psychology training program for a full accreditation of five years (the maximum number of years possible at that time). Five years later, the program was re-accredited for the maximum number of years. In 1997, the program changed the title from the PsyD in School-Community Psychology to the PsyD in School-Clinical Child Psychology. In 2000, the program was recognized by APA as a combined school-clinical psychology program and again received the maximum number of years for accreditation, seven (APA had increased the maximum number of years for accreditation).

About the programThe doctoral program typically enrolls approximately 20-25 new students each year, for the five year, full-time program. At any point in time there are approximately 100-120 students enrolled in the program.